Jumping into the Sea

So, my winter vacation is over - and what a time it was. Now, with a statement like that, you'd be led to believe that because I was on a gay cruise, that I am referring to the sex adventures on the high seas that so many might think about when they hear that almost 3,000 men are taking to the Caribbean Sea for a week.

Ah, but what I found on this trip and quite by accident, is how much being with a good friend and enjoying life really matters. Now, I met plenty of boys (always boys, never men, because men are really, just wanting to be boys again) - but in most of those cases, I was not on their menu as an appetizer and surely not as an entree and by the time dessert rolled around, I had more interest in listening to the ocean from my balcony whilst drinking a glass of wine

 

 
And amidst all the beautiful boys, who somehow, I don't think, really see themselves as being in their mid-forties and without their six packs; I found, once again, that what counts is what I make count. Did my charming and sarcastic wit embarrass my cabin mate? Perhaps, but you can't tell me he didn't enjoy it as much as I. Because, being friends for over a decade well,you kind of know what you're going to get.
 
And on one of our excursions, as the speedboat raced across the sparkling blue waters and stopped in the middle of "the swimming pool," I looked at the ocean and thought; do I stay on board and miss out on this experience? Or do I jump off and do something I have never done before? Sure, the water was only five feet deep and my rainbow colored toes touched the silky white sand, but still, I was bobbing in the ocean people without a floaty.
 
That day was the highlight of the trip. Sipping Rum and - gasp - Pepsi in the ocean and then on a white sandy tropical beach surrounded by coconut trees and gorgeous men, I thought that this is truly what life is all about. Meeting people I would never otherwise have come into contact and sharing it all with a friend who knows me well.
 
And as the week went on, it's not that I lost interest in the pursuit of adventures, it's just that I valued myself more than to be merely settling for the daily special, or sometimes, what was clearly, the day old entree.
 
Funny how escaping from the world can somehow make the world seem so much clearer. Like jumping off a boat into the crystal blue water and seeing the bottom of the sea.